Commentary  From the 17th to the 20th century, “Whigs” shaped an Anglo-American culture based on the universal principles of the European Enlightenment—individual liberty, free speech, property rights, rule of law, free enterprise, and democratic governance. “Whig” histories were affirmative accounts of national origins that celebrated a progression from troubled or divided beginnings to more just and democratic stages of shared civic development. Whig historians told stories of people and institutions that strived to become better over time. Up to the late 1960s, Whig history was commonly taught in schools throughout the nations of the “free world.” The development of the nation was regarded as something citizens could be proud of. Academic Contempt for the Whig Interpretation Some 90 years ago, Cambridge professor Herbert Butterfield published a short book entitled “The Whig Interpretation of History.” At first, the book went largely unnoticed, but after 1950 it became required reading for history …